The new Northern Territory’s government is pushing ahead with its promise to get tougher on crime, and a major crisis is unfolding in the prison system. Jails are full and a recent surge of arrests means people from the remote community of Wadeye have become drastically over-represented in the prison population.
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00:00It's a unique place of culture and colour, but the remote community of Wodair, with around
00:122,000 residents, is also one of the most incarcerated in Australia.
00:17So many, so many young boys in prison.
00:21But it's one that some are trying hard to break.
00:26We're heading out to a place called Fossil Head.
00:29It's probably one of the closest homelands to West Australia.
00:34You'll see that this is really a place that heals people, I suppose, in a way.
00:39And I see a big future, and this is part of what we're trying to do, is build an economic
00:45future for these guys.
00:47Hey, g'day, buddy.
00:49Hey, g'day.
00:51But this homeland outside of Wodair, these men are searching for ways out of the incarceration
00:57crisis.
00:58We start carrying poles down to the tail.
01:01Let's go do it now.
01:02With the help of boys on youth diversion, they're building a fish trap in a bid to bring
01:08some purpose and economic empowerment to their people.
01:12They'll be proud of themselves, they're catching fish, grabbing.
01:17It's no easy task, driving poles into the mud under the burning sun, which they'll then
01:23rig up with mesh to catch fish as the high tides recede.
01:27To be able to have people out here working on their own country, creating a business
01:32that will become an income for those guys, it's a small thing here, but our hope is to
01:38replicate this across all the saltwater country.
01:42With low rates of education and employment and high levels of dysfunction driven by intergenerational
01:48disadvantage, Wodair's trapped in a grim cycle.
01:52Out of the territory's entire prison population, Wodair makes up 5%.
01:58It comes as the jails have been pushed to capacity, with arrest numbers still rising
02:03as the new NT government continues its crackdown on crime.
02:08Our kids at home not having fathers and mothers and other people around, it just heavily impacts
02:14on so many aspects of our lives, on day to day stuff in Wodair.
02:20This men's shed is holding its annual open day, with the wider community invited to come
02:25and buy the men's wares.
02:27The men, they're doing hard work and they sell their stuff for their good money.
02:37As a troubled young man, Norman Dumu ended up in prison.
02:41He's since changed his ways and wants to engage others to follow his path.
02:47It's no good in prison, you know, you've got to stay with your family, always.
02:52That's my message telling them.
02:55Out here in Wodair, many people are working their absolute hardest to try to turn around
03:00the community's high rates of incarceration.
03:03But it's still very much an uphill battle.
03:05One of the biggest challenges that presents itself time and again is how to stop people
03:10who get out of jail from re-offending.
03:13We need to be mindful that changing people's behaviour and what they do happens over a
03:20long period of time.
03:22So we're working to achieve that, to see the difference in the long term.
03:28This elder visits prisons as part of a program and says with many relatives and friends behind
03:34bars and three meals a day on offer, for some from Wodair, prison can feel like a home.
03:40When I go into the prison, I talk to the young boys, sit down with them and telling them
03:46about this is not your home, your home sit back in Wodair.
03:51A plea for inmates to change and prevent a life in the system becoming a life sentence
03:57for those they love in Wodair.